Smithsonian National Zoo Smithsonian's National Zoo News 2024
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BlobfishBoy
Well-Known Member
It seems like the mammal team has some avatar the last air bender fans. The female pair of cotton top tamarins are also named Toph and Suki: characters from the same series 
.
.Some updates from my recent visit.
- The zoos longtime resident king cobra passed away recently at the grand old age of 32 years old. She was possibly the oldest king cobra ever recorded and, was basically blind and losing all of her senses as well. Despite her age-related decline, she just died of natural causes. She was the only king cobra at the zoo.
- The Africa Trail is planned to get renovated starting in October. The animals will move to other facilities but the zoo does plan on bringing back cheetah, zebra, sitatunga, red river hog, lesser kudu, and either addax or schmitar-horned oryx after the renovation is done. The lesser kudu/ Abyssinian ground hornbill yard will be done first, as that has been in the works for a while already. There is currently only one lesser kudu left, and she will be sent to another zoo soon but the zoo will get more once that yard is renovated.
- The Reptile Discovery Center is also due for a renovation, but they keep pushing the start date on that. Right now they say 2029, so it’ll still be around a while. A decent amount of the reptile collection is old, and they’re just waiting for them to die out and not getting too many new reptiles right now. Some of whatever’s left may go to other locations in the zoo and some may go to other zoos temporarily or permanently.
- Several changes in Small Mammal House. The old tamandua exhibit is now home to a Brazilian agouti. Pistachio, the previous agouti, was transferred out and they recently got a new female. Eventually, they will get a male for breeding. The big rainforest habitat is planned to get renovated so soon the sloths will also move in with the agouti temporarily. The golden lion tamarins are housed outside behind SMH for the summer.
- The zoos longtime resident king cobra passed away recently at the grand old age of 32 years old. She was possibly the oldest king cobra ever recorded and, was basically blind and losing all of her senses as well. Despite her age-related decline, she just died of natural causes. She was the only king cobra at the zoo.
- The Africa Trail is planned to get renovated starting in October. The animals will move to other facilities but the zoo does plan on bringing back cheetah, zebra, sitatunga, red river hog, lesser kudu, and either addax or schmitar-horned oryx after the renovation is done. The lesser kudu/ Abyssinian ground hornbill yard will be done first, as that has been in the works for a while already. There is currently only one lesser kudu left, and she will be sent to another zoo soon but the zoo will get more once that yard is renovated.
- The Reptile Discovery Center is also due for a renovation, but they keep pushing the start date on that. Right now they say 2029, so it’ll still be around a while. A decent amount of the reptile collection is old, and they’re just waiting for them to die out and not getting too many new reptiles right now. Some of whatever’s left may go to other locations in the zoo and some may go to other zoos temporarily or permanently.
- Several changes in Small Mammal House. The old tamandua exhibit is now home to a Brazilian agouti. Pistachio, the previous agouti, was transferred out and they recently got a new female. Eventually, they will get a male for breeding. The big rainforest habitat is planned to get renovated so soon the sloths will also move in with the agouti temporarily. The golden lion tamarins are housed outside behind SMH for the summer.
Hoping the planned renovation of the Reptile House is their next project after the Africa trail (and also that it happens sooner than 2029) because that building, especially the interior, is in dire need of a makeover. Despite a solid collection, I found the reptile house to be underwhelming.
Renovations should start sooner. According to public bid documents from the Zoo: "The planning, design and construction documents phase is expected to start in the fall of 2024 and be completed by the end of 2026. Construction is expected to begin in 2027 and be completed by the end of 2029."
The National Zoo has submitted an importation permit for 1.1 Giant pandas to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. (FWS-HQ-IA-2024-0124 on Regulations.gov).
The loan agreement is the same as before - $1 million per year for 10 years starting at the time of arrival in the US.
Renovations to the panda house appear to be almost the same based on the limited photos shown in the application package. The indoor areas include a new pool, eventually new climbing structures, and the ability to install natural substrate.
Renovations to the panda yards appear unchanged as well minus some updated fencing which also now appear to block visitor's view of the transfer shoots which were always helpful to see when they'd rush in or out.
All renovations are expected to be complete by end of next month. The pair are still expected to arrive by the end of the year.
The loan agreement is the same as before - $1 million per year for 10 years starting at the time of arrival in the US.
Renovations to the panda house appear to be almost the same based on the limited photos shown in the application package. The indoor areas include a new pool, eventually new climbing structures, and the ability to install natural substrate.
Renovations to the panda yards appear unchanged as well minus some updated fencing which also now appear to block visitor's view of the transfer shoots which were always helpful to see when they'd rush in or out.
All renovations are expected to be complete by end of next month. The pair are still expected to arrive by the end of the year.
BlobfishBoy
Well-Known Member
Notes from yesterdays visit:
- The renovation to the rainforest exhibit in the small animal house has begun: the exhibit is covered up
- Some black necked stilts were moved into the duck room (don’t know the formal name) of the bird house. I also didn’t see the robin that was here last year.
- This may be old news but part of the outdoor bird trail is closed for renovations. You can walk from the barred owls to the large aviary where the spoonbills, scarlet ibis, blue billed curassow, and others are kept. Past that it’s closed off. This means species such as the rheas and cassowary were not viewable. The flamingos appeared to be in a temporary exhibit (I don’t believe it’s in the same place as the old one but my memory is a little foggy there). It is noticeably more barren than their usual exhibit and the fencing used is different.
- Multiple individual reptile exhibits in the reptile house were either empty or under renovation/covered up.
-Earlier in the thread it was noted that the African plated lizard was an old individual with a kinked tail (they attached an image). The individual I saw did not look like this: the older individual may have died and was either replaced or the zoo always had multiple lizards.
-Brown pelicans were not on exhibit
Edit: are there any plans for the part of the zoo with signage on Smoky the bear? It almost looks like an exhibit but no animals live there.
- The renovation to the rainforest exhibit in the small animal house has begun: the exhibit is covered up
- Some black necked stilts were moved into the duck room (don’t know the formal name) of the bird house. I also didn’t see the robin that was here last year.
- This may be old news but part of the outdoor bird trail is closed for renovations. You can walk from the barred owls to the large aviary where the spoonbills, scarlet ibis, blue billed curassow, and others are kept. Past that it’s closed off. This means species such as the rheas and cassowary were not viewable. The flamingos appeared to be in a temporary exhibit (I don’t believe it’s in the same place as the old one but my memory is a little foggy there). It is noticeably more barren than their usual exhibit and the fencing used is different.
- Multiple individual reptile exhibits in the reptile house were either empty or under renovation/covered up.
-Earlier in the thread it was noted that the African plated lizard was an old individual with a kinked tail (they attached an image). The individual I saw did not look like this: the older individual may have died and was either replaced or the zoo always had multiple lizards.
-Brown pelicans were not on exhibit
Edit: are there any plans for the part of the zoo with signage on Smoky the bear? It almost looks like an exhibit but no animals live there.
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I believe the Bird Plateau construction is due to two things: a new covered structure for the flamingos to avoid another unfortunate fox incident and to mitigated the effects of avian flu. The other is the beginning stages of renovating the Great Flight Cage.
Both brown pelicans have passed and don't believe they've been replaced.
The Smoky the Bear exhibit used to be the old bear grottos and did in fact house the original Smokey the Bear along with other brown, black, and andean bears. Based on the Master Plan, not exactly sure what will eventually (if anything) be housed there.
Master Plan? Is that publicly available to view?
BlobfishBoy
Well-Known Member
Ah so the flamingos will have a fully covered enclosure soon. Hopefully this means they will allow them to be fully flighted now.
Did a fox kill a flamingo chick?
It's like 15 years old at this point - Id do a Google search for it
Ohhhh, the old one - I thought they released a newer one. Regardless, I'm not holding my breath on a couple missing key species for the *National* Zoo (giraffes, penguins, bats, rhinos, etc.)
Black-necked stilts have been always been in that aviary (waterfowl/Prairie Pothole), the ones in the first aviary (shorebird/Delaware Bay) are new however, replacing the oystercatcher. The oystercatcher was moved outside into the aviary with the ibis and spoonbills.
I saw one pelican back during my last visit on the 11th.
BlobfishBoy
Well-Known Member
Ah alright thank you for the correction. I must’ve forgot about them being there or somehow missed them on my last visit.
I saw the pelican last Tuesday as well.
TheGytrash
Well-Known Member
I feel like I remember those old bear grottos being a temporary holding spot for the Andean bears while the American Trail was under construction or something many years ago, but I may be misremembering. Does anyone remember the bear grottos holding anything for the last 30 years? (Also, does anyone have photos of them?)
Aardwolf
Well-Known Member
I remember brown bears (I want to say Eurasian) and sloth bears in those grottos in the late 90's, maybe early 2000s.
Sorry, this is my first time posting and I haven't figured out yet how or where to start a new post!
A friend at the zoo today saw that there were "Nobody home" signs in the zebra and bison yards. The zebra yard may be because of Africa Trail work, but I checked on the zoo website and it said the bison are not on exhibit, but with no explanation. Did anyone know what happened with the bison? They were there when I was there a few weeks ago.
They have been moved out of the zoo. The bison yard will be empty for the for seeable future.